Thursday, 19 January 2017

Any solid death metal releases lately?

I've never been a keen fan of death metal. I guess the whole "I CUM BLOOD ALL OVER YOUR AMPUTATED APPENDAGES WHILST MASTURBATING WITH A BARB WIRE" appeal and the crystal-clear production never did quite resonate with me, and to be honest most of the times I found it being plain silly. That said I did enjoy a few death metal bands here and there when I was a youngster. I remember Six Feet Under's Shadow Of The Reaper being the gateway song into the genre while Nile and Malamor were my absolute favourite bands within the genre. I still sometimes get back to the Dead to the World by Malamor and get shivers down my spine.

I think it would be fair to say that death metal scene has been very shy to music snobs around the world and only occasionally something noteworthy gets dragged into sunlight. The music this scene offers is mostly garbage so I started looking for records at the borders with other other metal genres a long time ago. There are a few bands that are in this sweetspot between death metal, black metal, sludge and doom, and that is exactly where I'm searching for death metal records most of the time now. The benchmark for the sound I'm looking for is probably Portal's Vexovoid as they have weaved its fabric from the very fibres of nightmares and it just makes my earginas squirt harder than Bonnie Rotten on cocaine while being dp-ed. I know many of you will say that it's not true death metal but I don't care - it is by my book.

By the way the mesmerising and ominous artwork I used in the title of the article is done by Justin Bartlett. Check him out.

ALTARAGE - Nihl

Found this gem thanks to the mighty Jim Wendler and quite frankly it acted as an inspiration for this blog post. These Spaniards have their similarities with Portal, but they just have a little less substance and a little more riffage going on. Verdict: SUPERB. Let Jim speak for me on this one, check Jim's post here.

Dragged Into Sunlight - Hatred For Mankind

Although Widowmaker is amongst my most beloved metal records of all time, putting this one here made more sense. Being rawer and less atmospheric than Widowmaker and the N.V. this record possesses a sonic madness that is truly hard to describe or comprehend fully but it keeps growing on me more and more with each listen.

Kosmokrator - To The Svmmit

The layers of sound seem to cover you like some kind of massive, thick and sticky muck. I must say that the band has achieved a similar atmosphere that Portal have built in their album Vexovoid. These guys definitely can hold my attention throughout the whole record. They use buildup of tension and release masterfully. Besides the slower riffs sound absolutely massive. An amazing album.